A powerful storm known as a nor'easter battered the US east coast, causing power outages, flooding, high winds and hazardous ocean conditions. At least one person was killed in New York City, and hundreds of thousands were left without electricity across the region. The storm struck the mid-Atlantic and New England over the weekend, and was forecast to continue into the early part of the week, while local officials in New Jersey and New York told residents that high tides in the week could potentially bring more flooding. Eight counties in New Jersey remain under a state of emergency.

• Nor’easter storm batters US east coast with heavy winds and power outages

Powerful weather system pummels shoreline for a second day, knocking out power to tens of thousands

Residents of coastal communities in the US’s north-east slogged through floodwaters for a second day as a powerful storm known as a nor’easter pummeled the shoreline on Sunday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes.

Tidal surges swamped low-lying neighborhoods in New Jersey while wind gusts toppled trees on New York’s Long Island, damaging homes and bringing down utility poles.

The ocean phenomenon could raise sea levels by up to a foot as El Niño keeps warm water trapped along the coast

Concerns are mounting about an ocean phenomenon known as a Kelvin wave that could raise sea levels along the California coastline by up to a foot, as scientists say El Niño is supercharging the threat of storm surges and flooding in the coming months.

As an incredibly strong El Niño continues to develop in the Pacific, the phenomenon brings with it a strange shift in the ocean. The Kelvin wave phenomenon is created when trade winds that usually blow from South America towards Asia die down or reverse in El Niño years, setting off a massive, slow-moving slosh of water.

Hurricane Nolo is moving away from Hawaiian islands but threat of heavy rain, flash floods and strong winds persists

Hurricane Nolo was moving away from the Hawaiian islands on Sunday, but the threat of heavy rain, flash flooding and strong winds persisted in areas of the island chain still recovering from previous storms.

Nolo was about 365 miles (585km) south-south-west of Honolulu and moving away from the Big Island at about 12mph (19km/h). But the Hawaii county civil defense agency said a high wind warning, wind advisory and high surf advisory remained in effect for parts of the island through Sunday evening as Nolo’s maximum sustained winds rose to 115mph.

At least one person killed and about 110,500 households still without power from North Carolina to New England

A strong, deadly storm known as a nor’easter battered the US’s east coast over the weekend, bringing power outages, flooding, damaging winds and hazardous ocean conditions.

Trees and power lines were knocked down across the region, at least one person was killed and hundreds of thousands were left without electricity.

Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected a neutrality initiative that would have banned Switzerland from adopting sanctions against warring states and blocked cooperation with NATO, Swiss public broadcaster SRF reported. The measure failed by 70.2% to 29.8%, with zero cantons voting in favor.

Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine has expanded beyond the battlefield into a campaign of sabotage, political influence, and pressure on European institutions. Every European country that has adopted sanctions or cooperated militarily with Ukraine faces some variant of the same push—to weaken the sanctions regime and fracture the coalition. Russia expressed sympathy for the initiative—which backfired. Opponents warned the measure would benefit Moscow.

What the initiative would have done

The initiative, formally titled "Safeguard Swiss Neutrality," sought to enshrine neutrality as "permanent, armed, and comprehensive," bar cooperation with military alliances unless Switzerland was under direct attack, and ban economic sanctions against warring states—with only UN-mandated measures exempted.

Switzerland currently adopts sanctions autonomously and has largely followed EU sanctions against Russia since the full-scale invasion in 2022. The Swiss government's own explanatory materials stated the initiative would affect sanctions against Russia, SRF reported.

Blocher's Russian connection

Former Federal Council member Christoph Blocher, 85, launched the initiative in autumn 2022—six months into the full-scale war and the same year his daughter Magdalena Martullo-Blocher, who controls Ems-Chemie, decided the two Russian plants would stay. He led the campaign through the organization Pro Schweiz.

Ems-Chemie produces plastics, adhesives, sealants, and technical fibers. Two subsidiaries, operating under the Eftec brand, continued working in Russia after the full-scale invasion, Swiss magazine Republik reported earlier this month. Company and government documents contain strong indications that Eftec products may have been purchased by KamAZ, UAZ, GAZ, and AvtoVAZ—sanctioned companies tied to military vehicle production and financial support for Russian soldiers deploying to Ukraine. Ems-Chemie denies supplying them.

The Federal Council and Parliament both recommended rejection. In the National Council, 124 members voted against and 65 in favor. In the Council of States, the vote was 29 to 10 against.

Explore further

Politico: Fico is first in line for Orbán’s disruptor crown — but Brussels has four more leaders to worry about

Drones over Swiss military bases

Unidentified drones were spotted over Swiss military installations this year. In about 20% of sightings over military sites, authorities cannot identify who is responsible, army chief Benedikt Roos said earlier this month. Asked whether Switzerland is a target for Moscow, he said yes—the country holds critical infrastructure vital to Europe that anyone seeking to destabilize the continent could target.

Across Europe, pro-Russian forces continue to push back against sanctions. Germany's far-right AfD won 43.8% in the Saxony-Anhalt state election on 6 September—its strongest result ever, though every other party refuses coalition. In France, Marine Le Pen leads first-round polling for the 2027 presidential election at 36%. Slovakia's Robert Fico earlier demanded the EU lift Russian energy sanctions.

Russia has combined kinetic and political pressure across Europe—drone incursions into NATO airspace, arson at defense-linked sites, and sabotage of critical infrastructure—alongside support for political forces that oppose sanctions and military cooperation with Ukraine. Switzerland's own intelligence service assessed earlier this year that Russia is waging a long war against the West and escalating it.

Residents across New Jersey, Massachusetts, Delaware and New York without electricity as storm hits

A slow-moving, powerful storm known as a nor’easter crept along the coast of the US north-east on Saturday, producing high winds that knocked out electricity to thousands of people while whipping up big waves and heavy rains that created dangerous conditions in some places.

Tens of millions of people were in the path of the storm, which was forecast to affect the mid-Atlantic area and New England throughout the weekend. About 100,000 customers in the region were without electricity Saturday.

Preparation begins for extreme conditions as Nolo bears down on areas still recovering from previous storms

Heavy rain and powerful winds are expected to bring flash floods and extreme surf to the Hawaiian islands over the weekend as Hurricane Nolo bears down on areas still recovering from previous storms.

Nolo was churning slowly south of Hawaii’s Big Island on Saturday with maximum sustained winds of 105mph (165km/h). The storm’s center was about 145 miles (235km) south of Hawaii’s southern-most point and could strengthen into a potentially life-threatening and catastrophic storm through the weekend.

Forecasters say storm will cause heavy rains and large waves along the coast, near communities still recovering from extreme weather

Hurricane Nolo is expected to bring potentially life-threatening and catastrophic flooding to Hawaii on Friday, affecting communities that are still recovering from devastating storms earlier this summer.

The state activated more than 230 Hawaii national guard members and closed schools ahead of the storm. Nolo is expected to move west on Saturday and not directly hit the islands, but forecasters say it will still cause heavy rainfall, as much as 25in, as well as large and damaging waves along the coast.

Forecasters say up to 40 million people in multiple US states could be affected by the early season northeasterly storm

High winds and heavy rain were beginning to batter New England on Friday as a “significant” nor’easter, the first such storm of the fall, threatened to disrupt weekend plans for millions.

In the Pacific Ocean, meanwhile, three separate hurricanes, one threatening “catastrophic flooding”, including life-threatening flash floods, in Hawaii, were churning as a record-setting El Niño continued to amplify severe weather events on a global scale.

TAF Industries signed a joint-venture memorandum with Danish firm Upteko for production but says bureaucracy is slowing the process. Meanwhile, Resist.UA agreed to invest in BlueShadow, a Danish maritime-defense startup whose founder commanded a US nuclear submarine and whose engineering team works largely in Ukraine, Defender Media reported.

Ukraine's defense industry has outgrown much of its own 2022-era hardware in two years of rapid wartime iteration, but a government fee of 20-30% on export permits and over 200 stalled co-production bids have left the country's foreign arms sales far behind battlefield demand. Deals like the two in Denmark route Ukrainian technology into allied markets without waiting for Kyiv's export apparatus to catch up.

Ukrainian first-person-view drones, made on Danish soil

Drone maker TAF Industries plans to produce its first batch in Denmark by the end of 2026, through a joint venture with local firm Upteko. The two signed a memorandum in August 2026, but paperwork on both sides has slowed things down.

"We need to pass a fairly large number of bureaucratic procedures to make it possible," chief business development officer Mykhailo Diachenko told NordicDefenceWatch.

He called the year-end target reachable, "though maybe it will look more like a miracle."

TAF wants footholds in other countries that support Ukraine. It has started the process in Norway and is negotiating with Sweden's Recas. Diachenko said the goal is local production plus sharing Ukrainian combat experience and technology with European partners. TAF builds FPV drones, with capacity near 1 million units a year.

A Ukrainian fund bets on Odesa's sea defense

Ukrainian fund Resist.UA signed a letter of intent to invest an undisclosed sum in Danish maritime-defense startup BlueShadow's €2 million ($2.29 million) pre-seed round, the company announced. BlueShadow's software collects data from maritime sensors, commercial feeds, and open sources, merges them into a single operational picture, and uses AI to detect threats, Defender Media reported.

The company has also built an open software platform it says can help intercept Shahed-type drones. BlueSentry, designed to protect ports, offshore wind farms, undersea cables, and maritime borders from hybrid attack, is one product that the company plans to launch in the Baltic and North seas in October. BlueDragon, now in prototype testing with Defense Ministry certification targeted for late 2026 and deployment planned for spring 2027, is designed to defend Odesa with autonomous swarms of armed sea drones meant to shoot down Russian attack drones.

Founder Charles Maher is a former US Navy submarine commander who ran a nuclear-powered boat, Defender Media reported. Almost his entire engineering team works in Ukraine, drawing on more than 15 Ukrainian suppliers. Resist.UA this summer launched Resist 2.0, an Estonia-based fund aiming to raise €50 million for Ukrainian defense-tech companies.

First such storm of fall could have wind gusts of 70mph in places, flooding and power outages, forecasters warn

New York, Boston, and much of New England could face a weekend nor’easter storm with wind gusts of 70mph in places, and “significant” impacts including beach erosion, flooding, and power outages, forecasters warn.

Effects from the season’s first such storm since Tuesday’s official start of fall could last through the weekend, especially if the system sits swirling off the coast, a scenario experts say is looking increasingly likely.